JULY 2012

Newsletter

❖ Above sleeping baby Thomas, below father and son - Baker and dad, left and Thomas and dad right. centre Harvey.

With so many babies being born last month there is plenty of space for any pregnant ladies at the Yogabirth class, so please pass this on to any of your pregnant friends - e mail for details. The baby massage class is bursting at the seams with the most gorgeous newborns in the land and for the month of July it will be in the pink lounge at the United Reform Church. Change of venue needed because....... I AM MOVING! New address is 8 Princes Ave, Petts Wood, Kent BR5 1QP. It's a tiny house with massive potential, so if anyone can recommend architects and builders, let me know ASAP !

❖ Thanks to all the treasured therapists who donated towards our summer reunion. Sue Greetham gave £180 towards our total fund!

ONE WORLD BIRTH A brilliant summary of the main topics discussed at the Human Rights in Childbirth Conference written by the wonderful Obstetritian Dr. Amali Lokugamage FRCOG. Please pass onto any medic you know. It was an amazing conference and an opportunity to hear the many views of stakeholders in the field of birth. I thoroughly enjoyed writing my paper entitled "In Pursuit of the Benefits of Physiological Birth" for the conference book. I will try to condense some of the more core messages that I took away from the event. Forgive me if there is a topic that I missed out...as I am still processing the large amount of information gained from the event, as well as its enormous significance to the birth world. Clearly there are many human rights violations going on through out the world regarding women’s autonomy over their bodies when making choices regarding their pregnancies. In some countries women have been forced by court order to submit to caesareans against her will and if women have decided to go against the will of medical advice, child protection laws have been evoked to take their child/children away. Whilst a woman carries her child in-utero, the consensus was that her rights should rank higher than the fetus, as this situation is unique. The baby cannot exist without her and sometimes the medical establishment uses their interpretation of fetal rights to manipulate and submit the woman to their will. Most women (not all) women usually have the best interest of their baby at heart when they make their decisions. In some countries, there have been prosecutions of midwives who attend women at home births or setting of the woman’s choice. Even if it was the woman’s desire to birth in the way she wanted and the midwife was supporting and making the birth as safe as possible. It would be better for midwifery professional bodies to handle questions about the way in which midwives practice rather than the law. There is a small irreducible maternal and fetal mortality and morbidity associated with birth which can occur in any birth setting, but the media bias which tends to highlight cases that occur outside hospital rather than hospital cases is unfair. One panelist suggested that there should be a counter-media campaign to produce more balance in the arguments. The lawyers present wanted to form an international legal network to support women pursue their desire for physiological birth. The obstetric model of childbirth, with its rational arguments to centralise medical services were culturally blind to the groundswell of opinion from mothers that this centralisation process led to a technical management of pregnancy which didn’t take into account that such a “birth factory” ideal leads to a disrespectful, frightening, traumatising, mechanical health service – especially to low risk women. This type of service does not honour the psycho-somatic, spiritual and societal importance of birth. This is perceived more by low risk women who, largely do not need medical assistance. High risk women might more readily perceive the benefit of the medical model however, there was a great deal of debate regarding mothers who have breech or twin pregnancies as many thought that their chances of safe physiological birth was better at home because of their perception of iatrogenic harm in hospitals. Radical midwives across the world were prepared to support these women in their decision for out of hospital birth. In a sense the obstetricians present at the conference were the one’s open to debate....perhaps “the good guys”. Guidelines from obstetricians and gynaecologist were thought to be very important in arguing out legal cases, however they may be flawed. An analysis of guidelines in the USA and the UK showed that less that 30% was based on rigorous science. The majority of these guidelines were drawn from inconsistent studies and peer opinion. Understanding this gives a greater transparency to collaboration (doctor/midwife/woman) in clinical decision making. Both obstetricians and neonatologists, because of all the pathology they see, are not balanced in their views and continual emersion in crisis-medicine biases their views, leading them away from a position of equipoise. When looking at perinatal morbidity and mortality and the health of children, there should be an comparison regarding long term harms as well as short term harms when examining medical versus physiological birth. Radical midwives were averse to the integrated care concept, as they perceived that the obstetric system still held too much power and had a tendency to steam-roll over the philosophy of independent midwifery and its wish to deliver patient centred care. Hospitals had their harms with the increases medical interventions that happen to low risk women as compared to an out of hospital settings, but home birth also had a potential delay in accessing emergency obstetric or neonatal services. Ultimately it should be the woman’s choice as no option was risk free. The long term benefits of physiological birth needs to be conveyed to obstetricians, because it seems that they were not aware of this body of research - as it is not contained in standard medical education. The physiology of oxytocin has not yet penetrated in to the medical model of child birth and this could be addressed by better education.

http://www.aims.org.uk/Journal/Vol19No4/InformedConsentHospital.pdf Many of the birth stories that come in from women in the class who are induced are harrowing to read, maybe this evidence based Facebook page will make a difference to future births: One Born Every Minute - The Truth There is NO clear evidence that induction of labour has any proven benefits over waiting for the spontaneous labour in normal pregnancies, yet 1 in 5 women are induced. So much is this done that most women believe it is an absolute part of the birthing process rather than a HIGH RISK INTERVENTION. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1595289/ This sort of story is not unusual - look to Ina May Caskin! Rachael wrote: "This resonated with me around discussions we had due to William being overdue ... http://jennifermargulis.net/blog/2012/06/doctors-and-hospital-midwives-need-to-stop-bullying-pregnant-women-during-prenatal-care/ Lynda Hills I thought your ladies might be interested in this too" Cord around the neck? what parents and practitioners should know. Please pass this on to anyone who thinks cutting cords early is the right thing to do or if you have had this done. In this way, hopefully non evidence based practice will be a thing of the past! http://thebirthingsite.com/interventionsacomplications/item/322-cord-around-the-neck-%E2%80%93-what-parents-practitioners-should-know.html

Check out this video on YouTube: YOGABIRTH BIRTH TIPS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo1WyXY5J6M&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. The mother is something absolutely new. —Osho, Indian mystic and spiritual leader

By paper artist Calvin Nicholls <http://www.behance.net/calvinnicholls>. There is nothing simple or ordinary about his paper art. Where we would simply use a piece of paper and a pair of scissors, Calvin uses everything you could possibly think of to carve, cut and rip perfect details onto his creations. The motifs are all wildlife, and that must be one of the hardest categories of things to make with paper since there are sometimes impossible details on animals. These details are amazing, and I can't even fathom the time it must have taken to create these masterpieces of art.

Nothing to do with babies, but the kids, will love to watch this amazing dancing. Enjoy... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9YrfHVB4ic&feature=youtube_gdata_player

EARLY CORD CLAMPING Despite overwhelming evidence to delay cord clamping, it is still routine practice to cut and clamp cords early, especially with pre term, c section and compromised babies, especially where a paediatrician is in attendance, so help to inform and at least enhance a baby's life and send this to every medic you know AND LET THE CORD PULSATE!! Part 1 - http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DcX-zD8jKne0%26feature%3Dshare&feature=share&v=cX-zD8jKne0&gl=GB Part 2 - http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DYDLywaBTd-o%26feature%3Dshare&feature=share&v=YDLywaBTd-o&gl=GB Part 3 - http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DSYhWzAjjRu8%26feature%3Dshare&feature=share&v=SYhWzAjjRu8&gl=GB Part 4 - http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dt5CelB63QR8%26feature%3Dshare&feature=share&v=t5CelB63QR8&gl=GB

TO PUSH OR NOT TO PUSH? http://midwifethinking.com/2010/07/30/pushing-leave-it-to-the-experts/

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/waterbirthinwoman/2010/05/28/pushing-for-first-time-moms-with-gloria-lemay#.T-8dEckze8I.mailto

For every mother-to-be to have one to one midwifery care and choice of place of birth WHY? Proven to be less c sections, easier births, happier,

healthier mums and babes!!!! http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/34513

From my friend Sarah McKj who I met singing and who is a biochemist - "I am not anti vaccination per se. But having seen 1st hand what it did to my son I do get concerned about the new 300+ paediatric and teen vaccines which are in the pipeline which will end up here to a degree. It's big business and combined with the liability protection afforded to Big Pharma which makes them untouchable if things go wrong, I do feel that people should have the right to refuse". http://www.naturalnews.com/SpecialReports/VaccinesFullStory/v1/VaccineReport-EN.pdf

Free!! From Tanya, Yogabirth mum, treasured therapist Osteo Please would you remind your yoga ladies of the 'baby bliss' event at Neals yard on the 7th July? I will be there to answer questions or briefly check any babies or pregnant/postnatal problems Thanks tanya_mcleish@yahoo.co.uk

Elective c sections wait wait wait ... http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/early-full-term-babies-may-face-later-academic-woes-more-time-in-womb-is-better-study-says/2012/07/01/gJQAf0xZGW_story.html

Pic left: "When you dance your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor, it's to enjoy each step along the way.

http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2012/06/27/amazing-babys-birth-captured-on-mri-film-video/?ncid=webmail6 __ (not so amazing to give brith like that though)!

With the school summer holidays looming it is known that children need to learn to draw upon their own resources, to actually become bored - yes drive you up the wall too - rather than go from organised event to organised event, chilling time at home with their mum is the way to go!

And finally, The best thing to spend on your children is your time.”

- Louise Hart

Lynda Hills

lyndahills@ntlworld.com

07815792857 www.yogasense.co.uk

Please send this on to anyone you know who may find this info to be of interest.

       

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